The field of endoscopy has for many years focused on techniques to remove tissue (e.g., lesion, tumor, etc.) located in the digestive tract as part of a therapeutic or diagnostic procedure. Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) is an endoscopic procedure used to remove gastrointestinal tumors/polyps that have not yet entered the muscle layer. In the gastrointestinal tract, the submucosa is the layer of dense irregular connective tissue or loose connective tissue that supports the mucosa (moist tissue that lines some organs and body cavities throughout the body), as well as joins the mucosa to the bulk of underlying smooth muscle (fibers running circularly within the layer of muscle). ESD procedure typically involves an injection of a material, e.g., saline, gel, etc., into the submucosa to elevate a lesion, dissecting the submucosa beneath the lesion, and removing the dissected lesion from the body.
A typical ESD procedure involves the use of multiple tools to perform specific tasks in the dissection process. For example, an endoscopic tool with a needle end effector may first be inserted into the body for the injection of a material into the submucosa. A snare with a wire loop may then be inserted into the body to dissect the lesion, and a cauterization tool may be used to cauterize the wound and stop any bleeding. A tissue grasper may then be used to retrieve the dissected lesion. The use of multiple tools may increase the complexity of the procedure and the risk of complications (e.g., inadvertent damage to healthy tissue, etc.). The systems and methods described herein may alleviate some of the above described deficiencies.